Contributor's Guide
The purpose of this guide is to provide some basic guidelines and information for people who wish to contribute to Project INVICTUS. This guide will give you a crash course in the universe of Project INVICTUS. =Style Guide= *Present tense (is not was, unless talking specifically about the past) *Race names should not be capitalized as they are common nouns. The exception to this is titles "Rhovani Marines". *Regardless of the editor's nationality. This wiki should be written with American English spelling. *When referring to dates, use the Galactic Calendar. Dates on Earth can still use the Gregorian calendar. =Galactic Society= Galactic Commonwealth The Galactic Commonwealth is the largest polity in the Milky Way, its leaders sit on the Commonwealth Quorum. Only full member races have an ambassador on the Quorum, and there are only 7 full members. The Commonwealth's main source of citizens come from associate races. These races are considered to be members of the Commonwealth, but this only really grants them the ability to bring their problems to the Quorum. Associate races are bound by the Commonwealth Accords. The Quorum has no real power over the Associate races aside from enforcing the Accords, but the decisions made by the Quorum are nearly always respected. The militaries of Associate races are not under the command of the Quorum, but they often participate in joint operations. The Commonwealth currently has 7 Quorum Races, and 53 Associate Races. The Commonwealth has colonized 6500 worlds. The Commonwealth was founded by the theodarans. Rhovani Imperium The Rhovani Imperium is one of the newer (compared to the Commonwealth) and most powerful polities to join galactic society. The Imperium was founded 6000 years ago, and has since gained enough power to rival that of the Commonwealth. Where the Commonwealth's purpose is the perpetuation of peace, the Imperium's goals are conquest. A condition for joining the Imperium is the transfer of the applicant's military to the Imperium Military. In return, the race remains semi-autonomous and has the protection of the combined Imperium forces. The Imperium is lead by the Supreme Emperor of the Rhovani Imperium and currently has 18 member races. The Imperium has colonized 5800 worlds. The Imperium was founded by the rhovani Commonwealth-Imperium Relations The Commonwealth and the Imperium went to war 113 years ago. A cease fire was called, and there has been an uneasy peace between the two polities ever since. This cease fire was negotiated under the Treaty of Pletharon, the last planet the polities fought on. One of the conditions of this peace is that the two polities would never colonize more than 10,000 worlds, and once a system has been colonized, that system is off-limits for the other side. =Technology= Propulsion FTL Distortion drive: Distortion drive is used for travelling between planets. D-drive is capable of accelerating a ship to the speed of light, but no further. Any faster and the ship begins to fall apart. Tachyon gate: Tachyon gates are used to travel between star systems. Built by the theodarans. Sublight Fusion drive: Fusion drives use a fusion reactor to fuse Helium-3 and deuterium the resulting energy release is used to expel propellants out of the ship's thruster(s). Fusion drives are the most commonly used sublight propulsion methods in the galaxy, as they are easy and cheap to build with modern technology. Antiproton drive: Antiproton drives inject antiprotons into a chamber filled with hydrogen or another cheap propellant. The resulting annihilation produces a massive amount of thrust. Antiproton drives are installed on military ships alongside fusion drives. Communication Subspace radio: Only one race has knowledge of subspace radio, the theodarans. They built subspace communication systems into the tachyon gates to allow the gates to send and receive status updates. Eventually the theodarans built subspace buoys, which created an FTL communication network. In order to send FTL communications, the sender sends a standard radio signal to the buoy, which the buoy then relays through subspace to the recipient's nearest buoy, which then sends a standard radio signal to the recipient. The FTL component is instantaneous, but the standard radio signal is limited by the speed of light, which can cause short delays. Nexus: The Nexus is basically the galactic internet. The only communications that don't take place through the Nexus are military and government. All civilian communications are carried out through the Nexus. Weaponry Railgun: Railguns are the most commonly used weapon in the galaxy. Blaster: Blasters fire a coherent pulse of plasma. Blasters are only used by one race, theodarans. Laser: Laser weapons are the second-most commonly used weapons. Laser-based weapons burn through armor. Torpedoes: Torpedoes are powered projectiles with explosive warheads. Penetrator torpedoes: Penetrator torpedoes are torpedoes designed to drop a ship's kinetic screens. They were developed by humans and the designs are highly classified. Resulting in them being a human-only weapon. Defenses NOTE: All ships should have BOTH types of screens, without these they would be vulnerable to whichever weapon type is applicable. Also, both screens are entirely separate systems and may fail independently. Kinetic screen: Kinetic screens utilize the manipulation of gravity fields to prevent solid objects from passing through them. Kinetic screens are also useful in deflecting incoming blaster fire. Energy screen: Energy screens are forcefields designed to dissipate incoming radiation. Energy screens are the primary defense against laser fire. Anti-laser chaff: Anti-laser chaff is made up of thin pieces of aluminum generally fired in a wall between opposing ships. AL Chaff helps to dissipate and weaken incoming laser fire, but due to drift it is only useful for so long. AEGIS System: AEGIS stands for 'A'utomated 'E'nergy-based computer-'G'''uided '''I'ntercept 'S'ystem. It is the point-defense system used on almost every ship in the galaxy. It is a network consisting of multiple mid-power laser turrets with the purpose of destroying incoming torpedoes and fighters. Artificial Intelligences AIs are broken down into three classifications depending on their level of sophistication and sentience. Class-1 AI: Generally only capable of rote response. Useful as assistants and receptionists, but that's about it. Most ships are equipped with a Class-1 AI for use in processing verbal commands. Some people may choose to have a Class-1 AI implanted into their brains, which allows them to access the Nexus without external interfaces. Class-2 AI: Mostly sentient, no emotions, but capable of learning. Class-3 AI: Fully sentient, capable of feeling and learning. Class-3 AI cores have the most processing power. Other Technology Radiator panel: Radiator panels are used to dissipate heat, which starships build up rather quickly when operating. Radiator panels are very fragile, and therefore cannot be deployed in combat. The length of time a ship can participate in a battle is directly affected by how long its internal heat sinks can last without needing to radiate. If a ship does not radiate its heat after a battle, the crew will literally be cooked alive. Ceramic ship plates: Ceramic plates on anycraft allow the craft to be able to resist physical blast of a kinetic weapon